Humans, or homo sapiens, are mammals, walk on two feet, are omnivorous, and possess opposable thumbs. We communicate, cooperate and construct new tools to aid in our survival. We build, we tear down, we change the environment around us to better suit our needs.

But that is not what makes a human… human.

What truly differentiates us from the beasts? There are other mammals. There are other creatures that walk on two feet. Other omnivores. Other wielders of opposable thumbs.

Animals communicate while hunting. Wolves will cooperate in order to take down large prey and then divide up the spoils. Chimpanzees have been known to use simple tools in order to obtain food.

Several people have attempted to answer this question over the centuries. Some have said that we are human because we are sentient, others believe that it is our eternal souls that define us.

I believe that these are two valid beliefs.

I, however, believe that we are human because of our ability to create.

A human can look at a landscape and see a city. A human can see shapes in a cloud of water vapor. A human can look at the world around them and think up something completely new.

Where do stories come from? Where do ideas originate? After coming up with a story idea, I often stop and ask myself where it might have come from. Perhaps I was inspired by something I witnessed. Perhaps I simply recombined several disparate ideas into one new one.

But every so often I find that I cannot answer my own question. A new idea. A spark of creativity. Spontaneous creation.

This power, this incredible ability to not only see what lies before us, but what could yet be, defines us.

If not for that mysterious power, we might still be sitting in our caves. But, because of this gift, one of our ancestors looked around at his world and decided to create something new. That action triggered a landslide of world changing thoughts. Can I somehow tame fire? Can I somehow fly in the sky? Can I somehow leave this planet? People, time and time again, looking at their world and deciding to bring in something new. Fire, flight, space travel. None possible without a spark of creativity.

Creativity is a gift, a blessing, a power without limit or restraint. Do not let it fester. Do not let it wallow. Do not let it die.

Look around you. What do you see? Are you content with what lies before you? Is your world complete?

Look again. Do you see what could be? Will you be the one to make something new? Will you change the world?

Do not misunderstand. I do not ask you to write a novel. I do not ask you to pen a poem. I do not ask of you to do what I do.

I ask of you to do what you can do. Create a new song, a new invention, a new language, a new game, a new anything. Look inside your mind, find that special place filled with all things creative, and let those thoughts out into the world.

You might just be surprised by what you make.

So, to summarize, humans are creative, creativity is a gift, and gifts are meant to be shared.

A traditional poem is defined by its subject matter, sentence structure and rhythm style.

A technical poem is defined by its deviation from the norm, relying on a unusual composition in order to draw the eye or garner the reader’s interest.

So far, I have written three technical poems: The Quickening, Spiral and Five. In this post I will examine their individual quirks and qualities.

Firstly, The Quickening. Probably the least obvious technical poem on this list, the poem is made special by the fact that every line has one less letter than the preceding line (trust me, I counted). I did this in order to shape the poem’s unusual form and draw an allusion to the dwindling amount of time the man has left (fun fact, the line which states his age has the same number of letters as his age, which took some clever organizing).

Spiral, more noticeably, has every line’s last word become the following line’s first word (even the last word of the poem is used as the first word of the poem). I did this in order to create a fun sentence structure and draw an allusion to the cyclic nature of love and heartbreak, as well as the spiral of angst experienced by the protagonist.

Lastly, Five. Once again the trick is fairly obvious (each word of each line begins with a vowel in the same order A, E, I, O, U). This was more of a mental exercise for me, and less an allusion to any specific theme.

So, the next time you decide to write a poem, why not make it technical? You can do whatever you want with it, as long as you make it your own.

You may have noticed an influx of poetry on my site as of late. Do not be alarmed, I have not abandoned writing for poetry.

Rather, I see it as a new outlet for the somewhat overwhelming amount of creative energy I possess.

Seriously.

On some days, I can’t even get dressed without coming up with a new story idea. My drive to work could result in another few ideas. It can be a bit annoying…

Anyway, I will be attemptingto channel some of that creative energy into other mediums, with poetry being my first venture.

I have chosen poetry as it has the ability to draw forth a range of emotions and memories from only a handful of words. And what better place to hone my writing ability than with the ultimate short-form story format? (aside from Haikus, of course)

So you can look forward to more poems in the coming weeks.

I leave you with two simple poems that I quickly thought up for this post:

(PLEASE NOTE: I realize that the science behind the universe’s birth is a lot more complex than I give it credit for, and that the Big Bang is not an explosion in the conventional sense, but I still find the theoretical implications interesting)

The Big Bang. An explosion orders of magnitude greater than the greatest explosions found on Earth (whether manmade or natural). And in certain theories (where dark matter is driving an ever expanding universe), the Big Bang is still happening.

Personally, I always found this concept astoundingly interesting. If the universe is still expanding, then the explosion that created the universe is still happening. The formation of the first stars, of our solar system, of us, all happening inside the largest and longest explosion ever known. An explosion happening on a timescale beyond human understanding. Every second that passes, our universe expands.

Try and picture it in your mind. Imagine a firework exploding in the sky. Now press Slow-mo on your universal remote. Zoom in on a tiny spark emanating from that fiery bang. That spark is us. It’s our solar system, or Galaxy, our local galactic neighborhood, our supercluster. An explosion, a violent, fiery event that has somehow resulted in everything that we know. Order, out of chaos. Life, out of destruction. Beauty, out of violence.

Our universe is a place full of incredible beauty, and yet, like the firework, it will one day fade from existence. So for now, while this universal explosion is still going strong, I plan to live my life without losing my stride.